U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Owen Williams, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 70th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, carries two artillery shells out of a weapons cache site northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 4, 2005. Williams is from West Plains, Mo. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew Wester
Mortars are stacked and organized at a weapons cache northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 4, 2005. The cache was discovered by troops of 70th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division in a remote rural area on Sept. 28, 2005. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew Wester
Days-Long Dig Yields Thousands of Munitions
During a traffic stop, two men were questioned about the fuses in their truck;
the information they provided led U.S. soldiers to thousands of buried munitions.
By U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Wester
3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division
TAJI, Iraq, Oct. 17, 2005 — A U.S. Army combat engineer sifts through the sun-bleached sand and uncovers a shiny rocket tube as other soldiers scramble into the pit to pry the tube from the ground.
They've been at this for hours and found hundreds of pounds of explosives, but the site isn't empty yet.
The soldiers of 70th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, found the weapons cache in a remote area northwest of Baghdad and worked to uncover the munitions for several days.
Since the battalion, nicknamed "Kodiaks," started digging in the arid, desert-like terrain, they have unearthed more than 700 mortar rounds (ranging from 60-millimeter to 120-millimeter), more than 700 rocket-propelled grenades, hundreds of rockets and 51,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition.
The Kodiak soldiers, assisted by troops from 977th Military Police Company, also found several mortar tubes, various explosives, small-arms weapons, homemade rocket launchers, wires and timing devices.